Fundable—An Innovative Twist in Online Fundraising

Fundable is a simple, but very cool idea (it seems like that’s the case with most of the really useful stuff on the Internet).

How it works

A person or a group of people list something for which they need to raise money, and the amount they want to raise. For example, I could put up a post saying that I need a thousand dollars to help me follow the Tour de France around next summer. Next I break my request down into an amount I’d like from each donor. I could say that I want $1 from 1,000 people, $10 from 100, or $1,000 from one person. If I don’t make my target within a set period of time, all the donors get their money back.

Why it’s cool

One thing that makes Fundable interesting is the transparency—potential donors can see how much I’m looking to raise from each person. And as the campaign progresses, Fundable shows a little progress bar that indicates how much has been raised and how much more is needed to hit the target. Kind of like those painted thermometers in front of the fire house or school.

For potential donors, Fundable is low risk—they get their money back if the campaign doesn’t hit its goal.

Some ideas for nonprofits

Fundable seems especially useful for small or time-centric campaigns, like asking 10 neighborhood residents to kick in $5 each for a block project.

Since it’s low risk, Fundable would be a great way to float new or innovative ideas past a donor community. If ti doesn’t gain wide interest, contributors get their money back.

CCTS loves to work with groups of nonprofits that have a common technology need. Fundable would be great in this situation. Imagine that we have a CDC, a workforce training organization, and an afterschool program operating in the same neighborhood. They get together and decide to build a computer lab that they can share. So they post on Fundable, as a group, a request for $10 from 200 people to help buy some equipment or fulfill part of a matching grant.

Get in touch

Do you have questions? Comments? We’d love to hear from you.
email: ccts@ubalt.edu
phone: (410) 837-6741